What’s New in This Update?

1. AEI now honors the LB0, LB1, etc. and FLAG, FB1, etc shortcuts as they work in an optimization MACro.

2. A surface can now be declared STATIC in the RLE file. This causes all variables related to that surface to be ignored in the PANT file, so you can use the handy VLIST ... ALL format and still keep certain surfaces and elements unchanged when you optimize the lens.

3. The DSEARCH optimization MACro now contains a much shorter PANT file, using the new STATIC feature to keep an entered front end static if it is not declared ALL.

4. The CAM program now has a new ZSPACE variety. The ENDS selection will distribute the zoom positions in a manner that concentrates them near the ends of the zoom range. This often works better than the other options if the zoom range is large.

5. Three plastics have been removed from the Unusual materials catalog. Types SP-1516, SP-1715, and SD-1414 are no longer on the vendors website and are presumed discontinued.

6. The Field Blur Menu (MFB) now has options to create a custom array of circles or squares, with user-entered size and spacings.

7. ZSEARCH now has an option (AGROUP) that causes the AANT file in the optimization MACro to contain a single ZGROUP ALL collection of aberrations that will apply to all zooms. Otherwise, it creates a separate set for each zoom, which can be useful if you want to adjust weights on an individual basis, which was the case before.

Bugs Fixed:

1. The DSEARCH combination USE CURRENT + COVER + BACK SET ... did not work properly.

2. The RPO plot created an incorrect plot if the numbers of fields was greater than the maximum allowed four.Version 15.51

The update to version 15.51 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. DSEARCH now has a FILTER directive, which lets you specify that certain elements should be either positive or negative, while the others can be either. If you know what a portion of your lens should look like, you can specify it this way -- and shorten the search time by a factor of two for each element so declared.2. SYNOPSYS now has a STEP file converter. There are limitations, however, which you can read about in the UM.

Bugs Fixed:1. The sequence IFR ... / IFP ... did not work if COMMON was requested.2. ARG did not work properly with plastic elements.3. Index values varied with GLM did not let the value of Nd rise above 1.9, even if you specified a higher limit with the CUL and FUL directives.

Version 15.50

The update to version 15.50 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. SOLID and DSOLID now accept the mnemonic SPART, which sets the partition number for rendering surfaces. The default partition is very fine -- making a beautiful smooth curve -- but the DXF file from DSOLID was huge. Now you can request a coarser partition, and the file will be smaller.

2. We have enhanced the algorithm that finds the real pupil. It can still fail, in cases where the chief ray is close to a caustic, but it is more robust now.

3. The SINGLE input for ZSEARCH now accepts an integer number, as does DSEARCH.

4. We have updated the Ohara glass catalog, adding some new glass types.

5. Also, we have implemented a new feature: sn MOLD rate will alter the index of most of the low Tg glasses according to the rate at which pressed lenses are cooled. The index depends on this rate, and is somewhat lower than the catalog value. The data from Ohara are fully implemented, while Schott provides only a single molded value, from which one cannot extract the effect of the cooling rate. In any case, the change in index is modeled as MELT data, which apply to a specified surface and become part of the RLE file.

Bugs Fixed:1. The previous version did not provide a way to turn off a selection in the WorkSheet.

Version 15.49

The update to version 15.49 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. It is now possible for your annotated text to be displayed in Courier font in the graphics windows. This is intended for when you want to copy some printed text, such as Zernike terms, to paste on the drawing. The default text does not line up columns the same way, since it is proportional spaced..

2. DSEARCH now accepts an optional DAMP input and will add it to the optimization MACro. Sometimes a high damping makes it work better.

3. A new variable is available. The mnemonic PGM declares a surface PLASTIC and varies the index and Abbe number so that they both move along a curved line that passes through the area where plastics are to be found. If a surface is already declared PLASTIC, the usual GLM variable does the same thing. This should avoid problems with the very small area previously modeled with boundary conditions.

4. If your lens has aspherics defined as spherical or conic with G-term coefficients, a new variable DCA will vary the coefficients, so you don't have to list them individually, as before. You can select to vary only the axially-symmetric or rotationally-symmetric terms if you wish.

5. DSEARCH ... SINGLE now accepts the case you want to process as a decimal number. It still accepts a series of 1's and 0's, or P's and N's, as before.

6. PAD now lets you define a command link string for each of the five views in each of the six configurations. Before, a single string applied to all.

7. The Shape Option dialog for converting to or editing a Zernike surface now has a check box where you can select to make the surface go through the vertex. (Zernikes can have a nonzero sag at the origin, if this is not selected.)

8. We have modified one of the common blocks of the source code, and users who have implemented the USERDLL.sln to customize the program for their needs will need a new fortranstructures.h file. Please contact OSD and request this file before you use this new update.

Bugs Fixed:1. ELD element drawings did not display mirrors whose thickness was declared CMIRROR correctly.2. If switch 1 is off, the optimization could fail.3. The SPS spreadsheet display did not show up properly on small notebook computers. Now it shows the lens data in groups of 25 instead of 50, so it works on small screens too.4. If you ran AAA (Automatic Aspheric Assignment) and killed the process before it was finished, it loaded the current contents of the requested library location, which would have been overridden had the job finished.5. The new protocol for selecting text in the Command Window would turn off the selection as soon as you pressed any key. But that disabled the <ctrl>C copy and <shift>extend-selection functions. Now those are allowed.

Version 15.48

The update to version 15.48 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. The Automatic Aspheric Assignment feature (AAA) now supports multicores and will run much faster if that is implemented.

2. The PAD Scan button now shows the current HBAR in the PAD data box. So you can see exactly which field has a problem.

3. The FEATHER calculation now has an optional PLOT argument.

Bugs Fixed:1. The SEL slider in the WorkSheet added one additional mouse move when you stopped moving your mouse. Now it doesn't.2. The new Comment button in EE could miss the last line in the selection.3. The fans plot in PAD would fail if the chief ray at the first HBAR analyzed did not trace.4. The SEDGE edge declaration did not work properly if the second side of the element was tilted, and it did not display correctly in RSOLID if one side had a hard CAO but the other was soft.5. The annotation editor deleted current annotation if you clicked the Copy button. It was supposed to add to, not replace it.6. The DWG option to use BTOL data did not position the letter designation correctly if the element was declared SEDGE.

Version 15.47The update to version 15.47 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. We have added Lesson 48 to the Online Tutorials. This shows how to design a 22-element microlithography lens, from scratch, in about 45 minutes. Need we say no other code in the world can do this?

2. FFBUILD now honors a CFOV directive, if entered, and corrects only over a circular field. Otherwise it corrects over a rectangular field.

3. The EE editor toolbar has two new buttons. These will comment out or uncomment any block of text that is selected when the buttons are clicked. Now it is much easier to skip sections of the MACro, without making a SKIP block or editing each line in the selection separately.

4. The new commands SPL and RPL will save the definitions of the current PAD layout for all ACONS, and recall them later -- but will not save or restore the lenses therein. This is different from SSU and RSU, which save and recall both the layout and the lenses.

5. The EE editor option to color comments has been improved. Now it does not update the display after every keystroke, which could be slow if the file was large. Now it only updates after selected changes, and runs faster.

Bugs Fixed:1. FFBUILD did not honor the LRAYS directive, if entered.2. DSEARCH defaulted to a single field of view if the system was declared AFOCAL.3. Some of the PAD labels could overlap others.4. The default CAO on the image surface was incorrect if the aperture was not centered at the vertex.

Version 15.46

The update to version 15.46 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. We have been tasked with analyzing a system with an isolated defect, such as a small bump or hollow on a surface. To do so, we implemented a new USS shape, number 28, which can model the bump.

2, A new GRIN form is also available, type GRIN LOCAL, which can model a local departure from a uniform index value. These two features can then be used to analyze the effect of these errors on the wavefront or image quality.

Bugs Fixed:1. ZSEARCH did not always load the optimization MACro into an editor if the run specified explicit glasses for the elements.

Version 15.45

The update to version 15.45 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. The top menu bar has been extended. For new users, this makes it a little easier to find the dialog you want. For experienced users, of course, it is entirely unnecessary, because the mnemonics are so easy to remember.

2. The DMASK ... ZONE analysis has been improved. Before, it sampled the aperture at 10 000 points and located the nearest zone with that precision. For fine fringes, this was not always accurate enough. Now it interpolates between those locations and is more precise.

3. A new command, CDIST, will analyze the distortion pattern over the field and return a set of interpolation coefficients that model that pattern. This is intended for use with digital displays, where one can compensate for lens distortion with an opposite distortion there. The coefficients tell you how to adjust things. The analysis can be done in each color, for cases where you also want to compensate for lateral color.

4. The Text Select button is gone. Now you can always select text lines from the Command Window. Typing anything in that window will automatically scroll to the bottom, where input has to go.

5. We have added another lesson to the Online Tutorials. Number 47 shows how to design a 30X zoom lens with three moving groups and 15 corrected zooms. We provide this lesson in response to a new user's request to support up to 45 zoom positions, which may indeed be necessary when using a competitor's primitive product. Unaware of the power and sophistication of SYNOPSYS, he assumed the same would be true here. But such a large number of zooms is not required when one has the sophisticated tools for the job provided by SYNOPSYS.

Bugs Fixed:1. BTOL did not work properly if PFTEST was active and the lenses were extremely small.

Version 15.44

The update to version 15.44 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. If you run ELD with a negative surface number, which disables the drawing but fills in the data boxes, the program will also disable listing aspheric coefficients. The latter are shown by default and make sense if the surface is rotationally symmetric -- but only symmetric terms are then shown. Now you can simply copy the terms from the ASY listing and paste them into the ELD drawing, along with PER drawings, as instructed in Section 7.7. Then all terms will appear on the picture, along with the drawings, which you can further annotate as needed. This is useful with free-form decentered elements, which the default ELD drawing does not render properly.

2. BTOL has been much improved. Now, if you declare a surface or collection of surfaces a GROUP, it will defeat the default tilt and decenter tolerance on those surfaces and instead calculate tolerances of all six degrees of freedom (X, Y, X, and alpha, beta, and gamma). This is intended for off-axis and free-form surfaces and mirrors, where one needs all six tolerances. It will also defeat the TH tolerance before the group, since the ZDC tolerance does much the same thing, but not after, since there are two airspaces involved.

3. The file saved by the BTOL SAVE command has been restructured. It now includes the new group tolerances, and it has also been reduced in size. Before, a .BTO file was over 30 MB in size; now for a typical system it is around 500 KB. This means that all previously saved BTOL files are now obsolete, and if you need them, you should run BTOL again and save a fresh copy. The previous file form will no longer open in BTOL.

4. The MOF command (MTF over field) now accepts the color number "S", which causes the MTF to be calculated in each color separately. This is intended for systems using a digital display of some kind, where one can compensate for substantial lateral color with software, thus eliminating the requirement to correct that error in the lens itself. This can sometimes result in a better image in each color, since one can then use the GPR raygrid request in the merit function (correct relative to the principal ray) instead of GNR, which corrects relative to the major-color chief ray.

5. The Worksheet dialog is now somewhat larger, so you don't have to scroll up and down as often as before.

6. The FPU command (PUPIL plot over field) now has a form FFPU, which covers the full field, from -1 to 1, instead of 0 to 1.

7. MC now treats decenters differently: it only perturbs the lens in Y, according to the budget, unless an explicit XDC range has been declared. This makes more sense, since one often only monitors the image in the Y-Z plane, and a decenter in X would appear less sensitive than it really is. If a system is not rotationally symmetric, the new GROUP tolerances, if applicable, get tolerances in X, Y, and Z, and that option is recommended in that case.

Bugs Fixed:1. The BTOL summary listed the tolerance on XDC the same as on YDC, even though they were actually different in the budget listing.

2. The TFG plot drew the horizontal scale too wide.

Version 15.43

The update to version 15.43 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. The routine that calculates the intercept of a grazing-incidence ray with an aspheric surface has been improved. Before, it often found the wrong intercept when there was more than one.

2. FIS (fringes at an intermediate surface) has been improved and works better at a decentered surface. It also now lists the Zernike coefficients that model the displayed wavefront.

3. A new surface shape is now available. Surface type USS 27 models a plane grating with a single surface. This is easier to use than the older GRATING specification.

4. The ORDER parameter on a GRATING surface has been reversed, bringing it into agreement with the new USS 27.

Bugs Fixed:1. If you requested CSTOP and had a decentered CAO on the stop surface, the WAP 2 calculation did not work. Now it deletes any decenter when you use CSTOP.

2. The BTOL entry RANGE XDC range did not work.

3. The default RANGE for PFTEST surfaces in BTOL was sometimes too large, causing ray failures in the tolerance calculation.

4. Some kinds of ray failures during a BTOL run would loop indefinitely. Now it aborts and tells you which parameter was at fault.

Version 15.42

The update to version 15.42 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. MTF over field (MOF) now has two new flavors: FMOF analyzes the full field, from HBAR = -1 to +1. And FZMOF does the same but with a Zernike fit to the wavefront. (MOF goes from 0 to +1.)

2. The ASY command now lists the group size along with the tilts and decenters on each surface.

3. The GOUT option has been improved. Now it sets the index at all wavelengths equal, so when the value reaches 1.0 you can just remove the element. Before, it only changed the index at the major color, and the others were sometimes not reasonable.

4. The FNUM entry in DSEARCH is now optional with AFOCAL lenses. You can also control the magnification with targets on selected rays.

5. The RZS command, which recasts a surface to a Zernike, has been improved. Now it has two new flavors: RZP tries to duplicate the slope of the result to match the target, while RZB targets both the sag and the slope. It also now runs more passes and then anneals, which usually gets a better fit.

Bugs Fixed:1. MAP TRANS did not work properly in multicolor mode.

2. The shape options dialog would crash with USS 16 if you clicked the USS 15 selection.

3. OPD calculation was incorrect if the system had a DOE element that was also the UNDO surface for a previous tilt or decenter.

4. The glassmap disply MGT option to show the data at the current wavelengths in the lens did not show the VNUM correctly.

5. The SLOPE aberration came back with the wrong sign.

6. Surfaces designated SEDGE (simple edge) did not draw correctly if the CAO was decentered.

Version 15.41

The update to version 15.41 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. A new shape is available: type USS 26 models a 3-layer DOE. This is similar to the 2-layer version USS 20, but has a layer of plastic between the two kinoforms and yields higher diffraction efficiency.

2. A new RLE entry LOG log will set the log number assigned to the lens to the entered value. Similarly, the command LOG LENS log will assign the number, as will the AI sentence LENS LOG = log.

4. Diffraction analysis did not work properly for DOEs in polarization mode.

Version 15.40The update to version 15.40 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. The spreadsheet SYS has been enhanced. Now you can change wavelengths directly in the edit boxes; before, they did not take effect until you pressed a second button.

2. DSEARCH now lets you specify selected surfaces as Zernikes. You can choose the coefficient set: all, bilateral symmetric, or radially symmetric.

Bugs Fixed:1. The USE CURRENT option in DSEARCH did not clean up aspheric coefficients that were present on surfaces past the target point.

2. FINAL listed FLUX aberrations with a current value of zero.

3. The number of significant figures on AI plot headings was too few.

Version 15.39

The update to version 15.39 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. The flood-fill option in PAD has been enhanced, and it is now possible to declare a surface NOFFILL, for rare cases where the fill color leaks out and that feature got turned off.

2. DSEARCH now lets you USE CURRENT and vary the tilt and decenter on new elements.

3. A new operand, RCLEAR, can be used to keep adjacent surfaces from intersecting along a given ray. (The AEC monitor only works on default rays.)

4. The footprint dialog MFP now has an option to create rays over a grid of object points.

5. A new surface shape, USS 25 is now available. This models an extended DOE, with 32 terms in both X and Y, for systems where an axially-symmetric kinoform will not do.

6. The FINAL command has been enhanced. Now you can request FINAL NUMBER number, to show only the numbered aberration, or FINAL NAME "name", to show only the aberration with that assigned name.

7. Some new entries are available for the AANT file: The operand NURBS works for shape USS 15 and will target each of the Z-coordinates of the control points to the entered target. This is intended for cases where the point locations oscillate wildly -- still producing a smooth surface -- but are hard to use as variables. Just assign a small target and low weight, and the surface should be better behaved. The form XNURBS works on USS 24, the extended NURBS shape.

8. A similar operand, ASPHERIC, works on power-series aspherics and Zernike surfaces. If you want to see if you can remove aspheric terms, but rays fail if you just delete them, this lets you move them gracefully to zero.

9. The ACA monitor has been enhanced. Now, if you enter a negative weight, it monitors only the rays at the field point HBAR = -1. (A positive weight monitors the rays at a value equal to the diagonal distance to the corner of the field, which is appropriate for centered systems.)

10. You can now declare a surface SEDGES, which results in a very simple edge for most of the drawing programs. This is for cases that are too complicated for the usual edge-drawing routines.

11. A new online tutorial, Lesson 46, is now up. This shows how to design a converter for a laser diode whose divergence is different in X and Y and you want to make the beam circular.

Bugs Fixed:1. If you entered a zero value for the Zernike unit radius, it could crash. Now it won't let you.

2. The Worksheet edit pane did not process the bottommost line unless you pressed the Enter key. Now it works either way.

3. Assigning aspherics to a DSEARCH run only worked for the first 21 surfaces.

4. Varying the RAD on a toric surface did not work.

5. If you ran RSOLID and then tried to print a window, the program would crash.

Version 15.38

The update to version 15.38 incorporates the following changes:

Features:1. AED now has a new option that will do an additional optimization run, after you agree to delete the selected element, where the targets on that element are controlled via "C" aberrations rather than by "M". This should reduce the thickness and power to very close to zero, so when that element is removed the ray paths are unchanged. Also, the former PIA parameter has been renamed PEL. The power is now controlled by taking the difference between the curvatures on both sides. Before, it used the first-order power, which was not appropriate if the element was cemented.

2. The number of allowed variables is increased from 200 to 400.

3. A new surface shape, USS 24, models a NURBS surface, as does type USS 15 -- but in this case the data area can contain up to 400 points instead of the 81 of the other shape. This form has a new restriction: only five slots are available, and you must select one of them when you assign this shape.

4. If switch 95 is turned on, KICK and ANNEAL will not alter GLM variables. (It still does not change the conic constant or general aspheric terms.) This should avoid ray failures that might occur in some systems.

5. PAD now shows an element with an aspheric on side 1 with a green surface number circle, and with blue if the aspheric is on side 2. If both sides are aspheric, the color is black or white.

6. A Zernike surface can now be assigned a new ZVZ setting. This will make term G 37 (a constant term) automatically adjust itself so the vertex of the surface actually goes through the axis point given by the preceding thickness. Since some Zernike terms are nonzero even at the axis, it is possible for the surface to wind up a distance from this vertex point otherwise -- which is an unwelcome surprise.

Bugs Fixed:1. A DO MACRO loop that ended up in one of the image analysis features did not loop.2. DWG did not correctly render a flat surface assigned a decentered aperture.3. DSEARCH did not utilize an existing system (with USE CURRENT) if that system had aspheric surfaces.4. SOUT operating on a surface within a tilt or decenter group did not work correctly.5. The polarization phase difference was not properly calculated by IFP6. ADEF ... FRINGES produced a blank picture.7. The WorkSheet SEL slider sometimes produced a corrupted edit pane.